Monaghan

Monaghan, a Lieutenant in the Royal Flying Corps, describes himself as "shanty Irish," because his late father made "a million dollars digging sewers in the ground" (414). He is also a former student at Yale. Monaghan seems uncomfortable with his complex social status, and there is "something of the crucified" about him after three years of war (414). When peace is declared, he removes his uniform insignia: "I don't know what I am. I have been in this damn war for three years and all I know is, I'm not dead" (415). Monaghan stays very close to the captured German officer, whom he shot down earlier in the day and claims that he will take back to America. He also recalls this evening's events in Flags in the Dust (1929) and in Faulkner's non-Yoknapatawpha short story, "Honor" (1931). Faulkner also remembered Monaghan many years later, writing him into A Fable (1954).